The IOCCNYSAA is a non-profit organization composed of people interested in various phases of archaeology in Orange County, NY. Founded in 1958 as one of 15 chapters of the New York State Archaeological Association. All devoted to historic and pre-historic archaeology may join.
The Chapter normally meets 7:30 pm on the third Friday of the month except July, Aug & Nov, at the Mulbury House Senior Center located at 62-70 West Main Street in Middletown, NY 10940.

Chapter meetings are held on the third Friday of each month except July and August at the Methodist Church in Goshen, which is located on the corner of Main Street and Court Lane. All are welcome.

** Meeting Notice: The March meeting will be held on Friday the 18th, at 7:30 P.M. Barry Kass will present “Ancient Civilizations of Greece”.

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President’s Message:

It was nice to get back to the chapter meeting in February. During the meeting I described a shaman’s ritual that I witnessed in the Paramo of the Peruvian northern Andes. I suggested we should adapt this ritual to attract new members and make our chapter even more interesting. However no one seemed to be interested in participating since it included inhaling raw tobacco juice through your nose, climbing a high mountain and jumping into an ice cold lake. During my travels I will continue to look for other suggestions.

We have another busy spring season planned and I hope all of you can join us at these events which include the Florist site, Foxwoods Pequot Museum, Dutchess Rock Shelter and monthly meetings.

Priscilla and I will be in Germany and the Czech Republic during the month of March. Therefore our vice-president, Check Tudor, will conduct the meeting.

During this trip I will be working with the Maria Reiche Institute of Germany and the Czech Astronomical Institute Academy of Science. We will be merging our data bases into one format which we hope will help us find additional correlations between geological features, aquifers, archaeological sites, astronomical events and geoglyphs worldwide. I am sure combining our data bases will give us greater insight into the ancient past.

Dave

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Dutchess Rock Shelter Day

We will be planning a day at the Dutchess Rock Shelter. Clif suggested we invite local teachers this year and we all agreed this is an excellent idea since the Native American is included in the 4th grade curriculum. We hope to have the date set by the next meeting. Gary Keeton has offered to chair this event. He will need help with the planning as well as people to guide and direct people at the site. If you are interested in assisting please contact Gary directly, or email ioccnysaa@gmail.com.

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Foxwoods Pequot Native American Museum

We are planning to go to Foxwoods on Saturday, April 30th. Since a bus is not available we will be car pooling. At this point in time we have 12 people signed up and 4 vehicles. If anyone else would like to go please contact Clif or email ioccnysaa@gmail.com by April 1st. If we have 20 people we may be able to get a “behind the scenes” tour of the museum. We need to book this at least four weeks in advance; therefore April first is our deadline.

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Florist site

Stephanie will be returning to the Florist Site as soon as the snow melts and the ground thaws. She will be sending out information regarding dates and time. If you have any questions please contact Stephanie, or emailioccnysaa@gmail.com.

This site provides all our members a wonderful opportunity to experience archaeology first hand. We hope all of our members can take advantage of this opportunity to develop their skills as archeologists. If you are new to the chapter here is your opportunity to participate in an archaeological investigation and learn the techniques needed to properly document a site.

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It is time to collect dues for 2011. Please send your payment to Clif Patrick at 119 Brookside Ave, Chester, NY 10918 as soon as possible along with your correct mailing address in order to receive your copy of the Bulletin. Please make checks out to IOOCNYSAA; $25 for individual, $35 for dual.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

David Johnson gave a very interesting and lively talk on his recent expedition to document the flora and fauna of the The Sacred Paramo – Sacred High Andes Wetlands. These wetlands are high in the Andes, a four hour horse ride from the nearest settlement, above the tree line, under the converging currents of moist warm air from the Amazon and the cold dry air coming off the Pacific. The result is nearly continuous rainfall in the wet season. In the dry season when Dave explored it, it only rains - pours - a third of each day. Under the near permanent cloud cover, pictured, this is a cold wet wetland with many undocumented species. So dense was the cloud cover, that Dave often had to use a flash during midday to take photos.

He was also privileged to document a ceremony at the one of the most sacred highland lakes, Luna Rae, changed but slightly over thousands of years, purifying body and soul in paying homage to the these deities.

Shaman at Luna Rae.

Dave also brought these objects, typical of the offerings thrown into these scared lakes during these ceremonies. So remote and sacred are these lakes, that looters have avoided desecrating them, so far.

Barry and Richard examining a few of David's Andean artifacts.

David's beautifully decorated jacket is from the Capachica Culture who live on the Cahachica peninsula in Lake Titicaca. The flowers on the jacket are representative of high alpine environments. Lake Titicaca is roughly 300 miles downrange from the Paramo.

Recent discoveries of valuable minerals and the threat of large scale mining now pose a serious risk to The Sacred Paramo!

The Gordon C. DeAngelo Symposium Committee is pleased to announce a Symposium in Gordon’s honor. The symposium will focus on the interface between the avocational and the professional archaeologist. This is a topic that was very important to Gordon and upon which he contributed an article to the Robert Funk Festschrift. Gordon’s life so wonderfully exemplifies someone who startled the sometimes deep divide as he made significant contributions to archaeology. Papers should focus on exploring the interface between avocationals and professionals, and the many contributions that Gordon made as he devoted his life to helping all of us.

Abstracts should be submitted in MS Word and emailed to both Peter Pratt (peter-pratt@twcny.rr.com) and David Starbuck (dstarbuck@frontiernet.net) or sent as a hard copy to each. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2011. We will forward the abstracts to Wayne Lenig to include in the meeting program. Please include your Chapter(s) or At-Large affiliation with your abstract. A-V materials can be in either 35mm slides or PowerPoint (since some of the illustrations may be understandably before PowerPoint). PowerPoint presentations should be forwarded via email to Program chair Wayne Lenig (wlenig@yahoo.com) by April 1, 2011 so that they can be preloaded and ready for presentation.

Chapter meetings are held on the third Friday of each month except July and August at the Methodist Church in Goshen, which is located on the corner of Main Street and Court Lane. All are welcome.

** Meeting Notice: The February meeting will be held on Friday the 18th, at 7:30 P.M. David Johnson will present a program on his research in the sacred Peruvian wetlands of the Andes Mountains known as the Paramo.

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President’s Message:

I was glad to hear that the January meeting went well and I look forward to seeing everyone at our February meeting. The Astroarchaeological conference that I attended in Lima, Peru in early January was very interesting and I will never look at an archaeological site the same way again. Researchers from all over the world reported on astronomical alignments of sites from the largest to the smallest. I couldn’t help but think about what we are missing in our surveys regarding pre Columbian sites in this area. Ironically several of the presentations commented on the association of viewing sites for astronomical alignments with groundwater sources. This is exactly what my presentation was about and it resulted in a lot of interest in my research. The conference chairman said they were thinking of posting the presentation on a website. If they do I will let you know. Over all it was the best conference I have ever attended.

As I mentioned before I hope you can attend this meeting. In addition to discussing the “Andean Tradition” and how ancient tradition is still alive within the lifestyle of many Andean cultures I will also present a wonderful way to attract new members based on the Andean tradition. I hope to see you on the 18th.

Dave

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Foxwoods Pequot Native American Museum

The trip to Foxwoods is planned for Saturday, April 30th. So put the date on your calendar and your name on the signup sheet if you intend to go. We will be car pooling so we will need volunteers to drive. Details will follow as we near the date.

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March 18, 2011 - Monthly Meeting - Barry Kass will be speaking on ancient Greek civilizations. He visited several sites with his students and some of our chapter members last spring.

April 15th, 2011 – We will offer flint knapping under the expert leadership of Gary Sipila and Joe Mlcoch. If you have a flint knapping kit get it out and dust it off. Here is your chance improve your skills.

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IOOCNYSAA Meeting Minutes – January 21, 2011

The January meeting of the IOOCNYSAA was called to order at 7:37 PM by Chuck Tudor, vice-president, in the absence of Dave Johnson, president. He welcomed all present and asked the guests to introduce themselves and how they learned about the meeting. Most had read the notice in the paper and were interested in the presentation on Iona Island.

In the absence of our treasurer, Ray Decker, Clif Patrick stated that there had been no transactions since the last meeting. Teri Caruso moved to accept the report with Jon Leonard seconding.

Clif Patrick moved that we accept the secretary’s report as mailed out with Gary Keeton seconding.

Members were reminded that the Florist site is closed until spring. We will be working there on Sunday mornings until about 1 PM once the weather is conducive to being outside. Stephanie Tice will again be coordinating the activity.

The Christmas party held in December was enjoyed by all those attending.

We will be hosting the 2012 annual state meeting here in the Orange County area. We need volunteers to work on the various committees: set-up, tear down, registration, reception table, Dutchess Quarry tour. We all need to give our time to this to ensure the success of the meeting. We are still looking for a location. If anyone has an idea, please let Dave or one of the executive committee know.

We did not hold the symposium this year. If anyone is interested in helping to organize one let Dave know.

Fred Assmus reported that the state organization is changing the way chapter awards will be presented at the state meeting. Now they will be handed out during the day on Saturday and recipients will need to be present to receive them.

The state meeting will be sponsored by the Van Epps-Hartley Chapter in Johnstown from April 15-17. The Pennsylvania meeting will be held on April 8-10, 2011.

The state publication The Archaeology of Long Island is available from the state or from Fred Assmus at a cost of $10 for members and $15 for non-members plus $2 for postage. He also told us about a paper by Joseph Gingerich to be published in American Antiquities regarding a study by Temple University of subsistence remains found on the Shannee-Minisink site near Stroudsburg, PA.

Please note: Membership dues are now due - $25 for single and $35 for dual. Student and junior memberships are also available. They can be sent to Clif Patrick, who is assuming the treasurer’s responsibilities until Ray returns from Florida. His address is 119 Brookside Ave., Chester, NY 10918.